COAL HILL (JINGSHAN PARK)
Once considered a dependency of the Imperial Palace, the park is just behind the Forbidden City. Built at the beginning of Ming, this artificial hill was erected with the land extracted from the ditches of the Forbidden City, and then the coal reserves deposited at the foot of the hill gave him his name. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796), fruit trees were planted there and the place renamed «garden of the Hundred Species of Fruit». A true area of leisure where the emperor and his courtyard could indulge in their favorite leisure, the Coal Hill offers a magnificent view of roofs with yellow glazed tiles of the Purple City. From the top of the hill, Beijing appears in all its grandeur and the north-south axis, according to which symmetrically built the city capital, logically appears: to the south, the Yongding Men Door, Qian Men, Tian 'anmen, the Forbidden City; to the north, the tower of the Tambour (Gu Lou) and the tower of the Cloche (Zhong Lou) and, in the distance, a succession of lakes. On the east slope of the hill is a carnival, tree to which the last emperor of Ming, Chongzhen, when the City was besieged by the Mandchous in 1644.
The park is particularly lively at weekends. Improvised choirs find themselves under a flag to sing old revolutionary songs. Other groups dance with wallets or tangos on the hill terraces. Calligraphers exercise their art by mapping characters with water on the ground… A good opportunity to discover a whole pan of Chinese popular culture.
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